The Perditionists
by Forzarismo
Summary: Well, I'm born in someone else's shoes, someone who shouldn't exist in the first place. And to make things worse, I am part of an experiment of the World Government. At times like these, it's a good thing I know how this world works, especially with only one goal in mind: Surviving. (SI/OC). One Piece AU. Dimension Exploration included. Rubbery Vengeance Side Story & World Building
1. Origin: Arasval

**Hey guys! Forzarismo here with an all new story! I've had this story planned out since 2015, but have never really had the time to write it since I was so focused with School, Work, and The Rubbery Vengeance. This story takes place in the same universe as The Rubbery Vengeance and will include a lot of world building, so be prepared for that.  
**

 **Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoy this story and make sure to tell me what you think!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1: Origin: Arasval**_

"Sis… Don't worry… everything is going to be okay…" I wheeze out, trying my best to put up a strong front for my crying baby sister, cradling her with my right arm and trying to calm her down as best as I can. I mean, it would've been more convincing if not for the hole in my chest made via shotgun blast as well as my left arm is a couple of feet away from me, losing blood at an alarming rate.

To be honest, I'm utterly dumbfounded at the fact that I'm still awake at this point. My heart stopped beating roughly five minutes ago, at least I think so?

I look towards my right, seeing the dead man that did this to me. ' _At least I made him and his associates unrecognizable.'_ I think to myself, looking at the three other dead bodies in the warehouse. I don't even remember what happened that much when I confronted them, to be honest, It was a mostly a blur, only remembering what happened after when I got shot through the heart.

From the looks of it, it appears that I caved in one of the guys' head with a crowbar, degloving his face in the process. The second person appears to be in a grinder not unlike the one in the second kingsman movie, though it seemed to have jammed when his body was halfway through the machine. The third seems to have had the most agonizing death, and that one wasn't even my fault. The fourth guy just missed me somehow from close range and hit his comrade in the pelvic area. It must've been one hell of a shot too, considering that the general area became a fine red mist and both of his legs aren't connected to his body anymore.

The last guy… the one that shot me… yeah, I don't want to remember what I did to him. That was too gruesome, even by my standards. Even so, I don't regret what I did. What they were doing in this warehouse filled to the brim with people taken from their friends and family, just what they were doing here is despicable, but to include my five-year-old sister in this!?

Yeah, there was no way I was going to leave any of them alive.

After killing the four human traffickers, I called the cops, telling them of my location and what I found. I may have left out the part where I killed them, but having my sister in safe hands is much more important to me.

' _Eh… not my problem anymore…'_ I think to myself, trying my hardest to stay conscious. They thankfully had my sister in an unlocked cage, so I was able to get her out of there, though once I stumbled and fell, I couldn't muster the strength to get up once more, no matter how hard I tried.

This leads me back to what's happening now, my cold body slowly, but surely starting to refuse to move at my command, as I desperately attempt to clean up the blood oozing out of both the hole on my chest, but also what's left of what used to be my left arm.

Ugh… shotguns are no joke.

"Big Bro… will you be okay?" My sister asks me, her eyes filled so much hope that I couldn't even tell her no.

"Yes, yes I will be okay. Don't worry… Your big brother is strong." I lie, feeling my stomach churn at the fact that I didn't tell her truth.

At this point, I can feel my eyelids getting really heavy with sleep, and realize that my time is almost up. I hum a tune of a song that I always sing to my baby sis whenever she is in distress, for some reason having a calming effect on her whenever I sing it. I'm too tired to sing though, but thankfully she recognizes the tune of the song and it begins to calm her sobbing down.

I hum for what seems to be hours, and soon enough, I can hear my sister's breathing normalize, hinting to me that she is beginning to lose consciousness.

' _Thank you Jesus, I didn't think I could keep up much longer.'_ I mentally say to myself, my body now shutting down completely, feeling my sense begging to leave me. Everything started becoming blurry, I can no longer taste the iron in my mouth, and I could no longer even feel the coldness. Every single one of my sense began leaving, and it is one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced.

I have accepted death a long time ago, but now that I am going through the process of dying, I never felt so scared. What makes this even worse is, by what my religion goes by, I know that I am probably going to hell for all of the things I have done in my life. By no means am I really a bad person, it's just that apparently, you can't get into Heaven by just being a good person.

As my vision becomes ensnared by darkness, I can hear sirens coming ever closer towards my destination. If I could still move I would be smiling. My sister is going to be safe, and so are the other people trapped in the cages around us, hopefully with them being reunited with their families if they have them.

' _God… When I go to Hell… please… be merciful to me.'_ I state inside my mind sorrowfully, feeling myself lose conscious for what is most definitely the last time, never again to see this world and all that I love and care for.

* * *

 **In Punk Hazard…**

"Okay Commodore! Push!" A doctor says as calmly as he can, preparing himself for the third product of their experiment to come out. The woman lets out a pained cry as she pushes as hard as she can, gripping onto a titanium handle that is at this point nothing more than a mangled piece of metal. Soon enough, a high pitched cry is heard in the room, revealing a small baby boy, with a tuft of dark royal blue hair, crying out in the open, getting its first breaths of life. "Nurse! Get the paperwork ready. Subject UMX-02 is a success." The doctor states, cleaning up the baby from any fluids covering him, while the nurse leaves the room to get the proper paperwork for the government's new experiment.

The baby's mother extends her arm towards the baby, gesturing to the doctor to give her the baby. The doctor complies, handing over the baby to her. As soon she caresses the baby, he begins to calm down, smiling as he seems to recognize that the person carrying him is his mother. "I think I know what to call you." The baby's mother says softly, with baby only gurgling in response. He opens his eyes for the first time, his hawk-like golden eyes looking at his mother's soft brown eyes. ' _Now I know what to name you considering you have your donor's eyes.'_ She thinks to herself with a chuckle.

As the nurse comes back with the paperwork, The doctor begins filling it out, before stopping and turning to the tired woman. "Commodore Gunilla, what will be the codename you will be giving this child?" He questions.

"Arasval." She replies, too preoccupied with the child, who is smiling at her.

"Very well then. As of today, UMX-02's codename is Arasval."

* * *

 **Three Years Later…**

This is hell…

If this is God's way of punishing me, then fine. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have to like it.

It's been roughly two years or so since I realized I have been reincarnated and in the One Piece world no less. They've been putting me and thousands of children through all sorts of tests to find the limits of our bodies.

Getting up from my bed in the middle of the night, I look into the sky, praying to get some sort of answer from him, only to be met with silence. I sigh, doing this at least once a week before heading back in my bed to go to sleep. I look at my bed, at the end of it there is a plaque reading:

 _Number: UMX-02_

 _Codename: Arasval_

 _Status: Alive_

My bed isn't the only one like this, as the bunk beds of my fellow teammates also say their numbers, codenames, and status. One thing I don't appreciate them doing to us is that they tattoo our number on our necks, being labeled like cattle since our birth. There are two thousand five hundred bunk beds in this massive room, each and every one of them keeping a boy or girl warm during the night, and in the center of all the bunk beds is a small bed holding a small red-haired girl, the first success of the World Government's project. Her plaque reads:

 _Number: UMX-00_

 _Codename: Helena_

 _Status: Alive_

I let out a small chuckle as I read my current best friend's plaque. Having played Fate Grand Order I can't help but notice that she looks like a child version of the Rider Servant Boudica with her red hair and greenish-blue eyes.

During my second year of life here, I've tried to communicate as best as I can with many of the children here who catch my interest.

God that came out wrong.

Anywho, since she is the oldest out of all of us by a year or so, I befriended her first and it turns out that she is one of the nicest people I have ever met, including those from my previous life. Then again, she is only three years old, so that can change at any moment. She keeps making me call her big sis and she always attempts to baby me, but that's fine with me. Having six younger siblings makes you many times more patient than a normal person would be, and having met Helena, I wish she was a sister of mine instead of any of my past sisters, except the youngest. Aside from being the oldest, she's also the most apologetic, always apologizing even when she isn't the one at fault. Though personally to me that just makes her even more endearing in my opinion.

Another child who I have taken to befriend is the dirty blond haired boy sleeping the top bunk next to mine. He's really reclusive and always seems to be thinking. Then there's also the fact that he is also the most mature out of all the kids I have talked to. We've had short conversations, but they tended to be ones that are more… enjoyable considering how big his vocabulary is. He's really strange, to be honest. Even more so considering that in every single test they make us do, his score is always equal to the entire group of kid's total average. At this point, his strangeness just amuses me. I just glance at his plaque for a moment before heading back in my bed to catch some well-needed sleep.

 _Number: UMX-04_

 _Codename: Kosaku_

 _Status: Alive_

* * *

 **Three More Years later…**

Fuck the World Government.

Fuck them for all the shit they put not only me through, but these children as well.

Once more than half of us turn five, the scientists here at Punk Hazard explained to us what our true purpose is. A test to see if they can grow the perfect marine soldiers to enforce the will of the World Government. Obviously, many of the children didn't like their explanation, especially considering the way these particular scientists worded it.

The scientists merely looked at us with passive faces, before looking at their notepads and calling up one of the children to the front. The child hesitantly walks up to the scientist before being led into one of the massive testing rooms that we use for training. If memory serves, this kid, Issei I believe his name is, got the lowest score in terms of overall performance on our last tests. They then command the child to stand in the middle of the room. Through a screen they show us his position, awaiting whichever test they have for him.

Only there was no test.

A scientist took out a remote, punching in some buttons on said remote before hitting the big blue button on it.

Purple light bursts out the kid's chest before engulfing the entire room in the biggest explosion I have ever seen in person. After the explosion happened, the remote spoke.

"UMX-1872: Terminated."

My eyes widen in both realization and utter horror. Dyna Stones. These fucking scientists implanted fucking bombs into all of us. I've always noticed that I had some slight discoloration on my chest, particularly where my heart is located at, but it never crossed my mind that they have the gall to implant bombs into each and every one of us, just to make sure we are kept in line.

I look around to see each of the children's face, many of them with varying expression, with most of their faces showing some degree of fear ranging to shock, crying, or fainting. Some of the children, however, look on with grim acceptance or defiance, but nonetheless, listen to what those damned scientists have to say. Surprisingly, Kosaku took this new info without care, looking at the scientists with disinterest. Helena on the other hand looks down in sadness.

Since then, the tests have become much more dangerous, in that those who fail the tests overall are taken away, never to be seen again. It's been like that for these past three years and it is scary to think of all the tests one has to do.

They have also begun taking four groups of five at a time with either Vice Admirals or Rear Admirals so as to give us battle experience and to experience what is out there in the world. Thankfully, they give us leeway as to choose who we want to be with, with them saying that choosing people we get along with gives better synergy.

A smart choice when I think about it.

Today I'm paired up with my good friends Kosaku and Helena, as well as two others who my group unanimously chose since I thought they'd be a great boon to keeping all of us alive. UMX-54, Codename: Donnie, and UMX-71, Codename: Bolo.

Donnie and Bolo each are in the top one percent on the Skills tests as well as being in the top five percent overall when it comes to the Physical tests. Kosaku is the freaking standard of all the child soldiers created in this program, to the point that they after years of tests, if they ever want the average score for anything we do, they just take his score. With Helena, she is the number one in terms of overall performance, and therefore literally the best one out of all the child super soldiers.

Me on the other hand, Overall, I'm in the lower twenty-five percent in terms of overall performance, making me more of a hindrance compared to the others. The only thing I got going for me is that officially I am the smartest out of all them, though that is not surprising considering I am technically twenty-six years old instead of being six, as well as my high aptitude in the Martial Arts part of the Skills Test and Pain Tolerance in the Physical Test.

Everything else… Well, I'm pretty fucking horrible at. Speed, Strength, Agility, Stealth, and most of all endurance… My failure of these tests dropped my overall performance points, with only my Intelligence, Martial Arts, and Pain Tolerance keeping me from being at the bottom.

By no means is my body really that shitty, in fact, I can do a lot of things that not even my grown ass self could do back in my first life. It's just that even with all the genetic modifications done to our bodies, there are many kids who are just more physically superior to me. I'm just glad I am good enough in other aspects that they haven't decided I'm a lost cause.

If it weren't for that, They'd have sent me with the other lower grade children, usually in missions where our likelihood of death is incredibly high. In fact, as of last year, I have seen over a thousand children go to missions only to never return, a sure sign that they have died a most likely gruesome death, causing our numbers to dwindle down to roughly three thousand nine hundred or eight hundred, somewhere in that general area of numbers. And since the Dyna Stone Bombs implanted in our hearts pretty much makes sure that there isn't a body to bury, that also means no physical funerals either.

Anyhow, the five of us as well as the other fifteen child soldiers are under the command of none other than Vice Admiral Sakazuki right here in the New World, alongside two other admirals who I have never heard of in the story's canon who go by Hisoka and Zachariah.

Our current mission is to search for the Roger Pirates as they were last seen around Hand Island.

I'd be fucking stoked about getting a chance to see the Gol D. fucking Rogers if it weren't for the fact that Vice-Admiral Sakazuki is the one commanding my group and is also right in front of me and the other kids.

I can't even describe how fucking terrifying his gaze is, let alone his very presence, looking down at us as if we are nothing but a mere annoyance in his ship. ' _Looks and acts like my dad times one thousand.'_ I think to myself, nervous as to what to expect from the terrifying Vice-Admiral.

He looks at all twenty of us, lined up on the deck of the ship, with marine soldiers just looking at us in anticipation, probably expecting Sakazuki to snap at us or something, and that is something I wouldn't be surprised by. He walks towards Helena, and I feel really afraid for her for being singled out by this fucker.

Hell if I got singled out, I would've pissed my pants.

"Who are you?" He questions her, his eyes entirely focused on her.

"H-Helena sir." She replies.

SLAP!

Helena is thrown down on the deck floor by the force of Sakazuki's slap. His expression now morphed into one that is almost exactly akin to my dads back then whenever he got in a drunken state of anger.

My eyes widen. Why the everlasting fuck did he just fucking slap her!? Helena answered his fucking question! I grit my teeth, wanting to do something, to speak out in her defense.

But I can't.

My body won't move, completely stiff in fear, denying me to will my body to move closer to Helena. I really want to help her, but I don't wanna die. Not this soon at least. I can feel my hands clenching really hard to the point that I can feel my nails almost piercing through my skin. ' _I'm sorry, I want to help but I can't! I'm technically a grown ass man but I don't wanna cross him!'_ I mentally scream to myself as a way to keep me from doing anything rash.

"Don't make me ask again. Who. Are. You?" he leans down at her, only a couple inches away from her face, as he repeats his question at her, his veins in his neck bulging in what I could only discern as restrained rage.

"UMX-00 sir… A tool for the World Government." she states emotionlessly, getting up, her body and her face completely still as Sakazuki looks at her a couple seconds longer before he leans his body back up and walks away from us.

"You twenty need to understand some things before we head out to our mission," Sakazuki explains, looking at each and every single one of us, with his gaze on me a second longer than with the others before looking away. "First off, Do not speak unless you are spoken to. Each of your groups will assist the squadron you are with, and if I see any of you are caught disregarding orders, you will be met with a punishment of my own choosing. Understand?" He tells us all in a stern tone.

"Sir yes sir!" We all reply before Sakazuki dismisses us and leaves to do his own things.

I immediately head to Helena, who is now caressing her left cheek, trying her utmost hardest to not cry from the pain. He probably hit her harder than what it looked like, considering I've seen Helena get hit by an airborne boulder ten times her size to protect me, only for her to shrug it off like it is nothing and continue on without a problem.

"Let me help you Lena." I offer, calling her by her nickname while extending a hand in a peaceful manner, which she accepts, sniffing slightly as she is no doubt trying to keep herself from crying. "Wanna go to the kitchen and make a pumpkin pie? They're your favorite." I offer softly, trying to get her mind away from the magma Vice-Admiral.

Thankfully, she turns to me and gives me a small trembling smile and a hum in confirmation.

We head into the kitchen area, which is thankfully not off-limits to me as I proved to crew members in charge of the kitchen that I am a surprisingly capable cook, good enough to actually hold my own against their top chefs here in terms of food quality, though they do wonder who I learned from considering my age.

Seeing an opportunity when I and the others began this journey in the New World, I decided to teach Helena the very basics of cooking. Obviously, there were some mishaps in the process, and we can't waste food since we are faring through the _God-Almighty_ New World, so helping as best as I can, by the end of the day she has learned how to make eggs in their scrambled, poached, and omelet forms somewhat decently.

I feel so damn incompetent now that I think about how long it took her to learn all three ways to cook the eggs. She's only seven years old and she is already a much better cook than me at that age. She is a damn fast learner and she soaks everything I told her like a sponge.

And after three weeks, yes you heard me right, _three_ fucking weeks of constant training in the art of cooking, she has the cooking skills of a three-star chef, and can give many of the lower class cooks on this ship a run for their money. Since she has also proven to the others in the kitchen that she has what it takes, we both have been given tasks whenever we are not doing anything in particular on the ship to help in the kitchen, saying that the best teacher is experience, not that I don't believe them.

As Helena and I finish making the pumpkin pie, I notice outside the kitchen's door a small shadow dropping a crumpled piece of paper behind the trash bin. While Helena is distracted by the delicious smell of a cooling pumpkin pie, I head to the bin and quickly get the paper to see what he has written.

' _Crow's nest. 12:30. We only have five minutes. Meet me there.'_ I read from the paper. Quickly shoving the paper down my mouth, I chew as fast as I can before swallowing so I can get back to Helena who is still entranced by the pumpkin pie's smell judging by the line of drool coming from her mouth. "Wait for it to cool Lena. It only needs a bit more." I remind her, shaking her from her slight trance as she realizes what she is doing.

"I know Aras, but I can't help it! You always make delicious food!" She says as she gives me one of her bright smiles, making me preen from her praise.

"Oh stop it Lena, you are pretty good at cooking yourself. I'm pretty sure in only a couple of years you will no doubt be even better than me at this." I tell her, making her blush slightly at my honest assessment of her skills. "Nevermind that, it's time to eat!" I tell her as I cut out a slice for Helena and then for myself, grabbing a big whop of hand-whipped whip cream and putting it on my pie before I dig in.

We sat in content silence, simply enjoying our freshly baked pie as we look out the window to see the rare sight of a calm New World sea.

"So," I call out to Helena, to which she looks at me with a mouth filled to the brim with pie. "You never did tell me what you wanted to do when you grow up." I tell her, who looks at me with a brighten look on her face.

I mean sure, With how our lifestyle is, it's very unlikely that her dream will ever come to fruition, but it's always good to hear out what their aspirations are.

"I want to rule my own kingdom! With me as it's queen!" She exclaims happily, twirling the fork around her hand as she continues, "I want the kingdom to be a place where everyone can be happy, and where nobody will fight with each other and can live in peace!" She finishes, making me smile at her dream. A foolish dream sure, but even with all this world can throw at you, this is the One Piece world after all, a place where the most determined achieve their dream in one way or another.

"What about you?" Helena asks me.

"What about me?" I ask back, playing dumb just for the sake of messing with her.

She pouts, looking at me with an incredibly cute glare. "You know what I'm talking about! What is your dream?" She presses on.

I chuckle, shaking my head slightly. "I don't have one." I respond honestly, to which her glare turns into an expression of surprise, but nevertheless, I press on, "All that matters to me is to survive. At the moment, I have no aspir-dreams to speak of aside from just trying to survive this place." I finish and see that she has a contemplative look on her face as if trying to figure out a solution for me not having a dream.

Judging by the shifting look she gives me, no doubt she already found her answer. "I got it! You will help me make my dream come true! And then, I'll definitely help you find your dream! That way, we don't have to be away from each other! You can be my king! Every queen needs a king and they are rich! So with our riches, I can help you find your true dream!" she exclaims, waving her fork around, expressing her happiness at the fact that she seems to have found a solution to my 'problem'.

I could only let out a chuckle at her proclamation. Hmm… That doesn't sound too bad if I am quite honest. Maybe there will be something I will try to aspire to obtain later in life, but for now, I will agree with her. "Sure thing Lena, that sounds like a good idea." I agree.

* * *

 **Later at Midnight…**

' _We only have a five-minute window, I have to make this as quick as I can.'_ I tell myself as I quickly go to the crow's nest, where lo and behold, UMX-04 is waiting for me.

"Arasval." He states, filing his nails nonchalantly as he looks at me.

"Yoshikage. What is it that you wanted to discuss with me?" I ask him, not bothering to act like a child in front of him. Especially considering that he is in the same boat as me both figuratively and literally.

Yoshikage Kira, or UMX-04: Kosaku as he is 'officially' known by everyone else, is the only person who knows of my true past, and me his own. It started when I caught him looking at an art book with deep interest, which contains the One Piece's equivalent to the Mona Lisa. I jokingly called him by his real name when I noticed that he kept staring the woman's hands, and then one thing led to another before he tried to kill me, only to stop when I told him that if he indeed kills me, Helena would try to kill him in retaliation, and/or the Marines will notice my absence and will most likely trail it back to him, especially after confirming that he no longer has his stand Killer Queen at his disposal.

Since then, we've grown a strange but mutual relationship with one another, with him reincarnating sometime after his adventures in Dead Man's Question and me reincarnating in my semi-successful attempt to rescue my baby sister.

"What are your thoughts on this?" Kira asks me, looking at me intently, twiddling his thumbs as he awaits my answer.

"You're gonna need to be more specific, considering we've got roughly four minutes left." I respond, looking at him with an arched brow.

"This mission. There are a lot of things about this that are rubbing me the wrong way. Don't you feel that way too?" He asks me, to which I nod my head.

"Of course I do. We're chasing down the Roger Pirates for fucks sakes! No matter what way you put it, there's no way we're going to win, even with Zachariah's powers." I pause as I try to get a grip of myself. "To be quite honest, I'm afraid of dying again, and not just for myself if that's what you're asking." I pause, thinking about my closest friend. While she is miles ahead of me in terms of everything except intelligence, she relies on me just as much as I rely on her. While she protects me quite a lot on the battlefield, I provide her much needed support that every child needs. I don't know what she would do without me since she looks up to me quite a lot and seeks advice from me whenever she is unsure of something, even though she is physically a year older than me and many would expect on face value for the opposite to happen. "Anywho, I guess we can only hope for the best am I right?" I tell Kira, who looks at me with narrowed eyes.

"You best prepare just in case Arasval. Our profession is dangerous, especially since many consider us nothing more than meat shields for their convenience." Yoshikage adds, quite miffed at the fact that a lot of the soldiers here consider them nothing more than a waste of time and only serve to be their meat shields. After all, to them, they were grown in a lab, so what if they lose a couple of them? They can just grow some more.

"C'mon man, lighten up a bit. I mean you are right, but I don't think we will need to worry about dying if we face the Roger Pirates." I give my two cents, to which I can see Kira raise an eyebrow.

"What makes you so sure? We've seen the damage he is capable of doing through pictures, not to mention the marine soldiers who've encountered their crew having a look of pure terror whenever they recall their encounters with him and his crew." Kira questions me.

I pause to think. I mean he is right in that aspect. Many of the survivors who were traumatized kept mentioning massive whales and/or waves that capsized their ships the moment their ships started shooting at the Oro Jackson. From what I remember, it doesn't add up with what I know about the series, and that quite frankly concerns me. I've written on a notebook a good four years ago everything I can possibly remember from One Piece: from everything in canon to the movies to the specials and fillers and even some of the theories that can even be considered plausible. If my information turns out to be for nothing…

…Well I am completely and utterly royally fucked.

Nevertheless, I silently pray that it is all canonical and I'm not in a more fucked up version of One Piece. With my attention back on Kira, I simply shrug. "Call it a hunch. Besides… what's the worst that can happen?"

* * *

 **A couple days later…**

' _Dodge and weave! Dodge and weave! Dodge an- OH HELL NO!'_ I drop to the ground as a dismembered marine corpse flies over me at breakneck speeds, his ribcage grazing my temple as I drop to the floor.

It seems I have made a big error as to what to expect when we got here. I mean sure, Roger's crew was a given considering we were chasing after the magnificent bastard, but there was one HUGE detail which apparently got left out.

Kaido and his crew are here along with them.

From there, Admiral Zachariah uses his Time-Time Fruit powers on the three Marine Battleships, accelerating them through the use of time so that way we can reach the pirates much faster as well as not giving them enough time to prepare.

And from there it just went downhill.

The Roger Pirates are a force to be reckoned with, and now I can see what many of the traumatized marines were saying about massive whales.

They have Island Whales on their side. These whales absolutely eclipse every single ship in the vicinity many times over

Many of the Beast Pirates fought with a ferocity that I have never seen before, and though we had the advantage in numbers, they more than made up for it with their superior strength and abilities.

Admiral Zachariah is currently fighting Kaido, the sheer difference in size not making any difference whatsoever as the both of them seem to be on par with each other. Kick meet kick, punch meets punch. Their attacks are moving so fast that I can see and hear them break through the sound barrier many times over like it's nothing!

And It's only been two minutes!

Okay… As long as Admiral Zachariah has Kaido's attention, We should be safe for the most part and be able to support our fellow troops in need. I can see Helena dragging two heavily injured marines towards the medics on the ship along with some other kids, doing the best they can to make sure their allies don't die a needless death. Kosaku is using a rifle from one of the fallen marines and actually ends up killing one of the Beast Pirates with a well placed shot to the head. Bolo and Donnie are teaming up and are doing hit and runs against from the looks of it Shanks and Buggy. ' _Okay, they aren't in any heavy danger, so that's good.'_ I think to myself as I release a sigh of relief, bringing in a soldier who lost one of his legs to the medics.

This goes on for about roughly ten minutes or so, and then there is a resounding explosion that permeates throughout the battlefield. Everything seems to halt as their attention is now towards a large man with even larger hands. His hands look like they've been ripped to shreds as a waterfall of blood escapes from the gaps of his clasped hands. He has a look of pure horror as he lets out a yell. "The kids have bombs in them!"

"Oh shit…" I mutter out as my eyes widen. Now they know, and will most likely use that to their advantage. While the Roger Pirates seem to have been at worst only knocking out the children, the Beast Pirates began specifically targeting us in hopes to set us off and kill the marines around us.

"UMX! I have a mission for you!" Zachariah shouts out as he redirects one of Kaido's punches with a high kick. "Distract him for a bit! I have a way to knock him down for good! Rear Admiral Strawberry and Stainless! Assist them as well!"

What?

…

…

…

Oh hell no…

I feel my heart drop in fear at what he means.

We're gonna die today, no doubt about it. I look at the kids around me, and they all have the same expression. ' _God, please have mercy on us.'_ I silently pray as I blindly charge towards one of the most dangerous men in the world. A man so strong that he can no longer even be considered human. As I run towards him, my sudden sprint seems to have knocked the kids back into their senses as they begin to charge at one of the Four Emperors with silent resignation.

"Hmph. How ridiculous. To think mere children would ever try to attack me." Kaido comments, the veins on his forehead pulsating with anger. "IT MAKES ME FURIOUS!" Kaido roars out, backhanding many of the children near him with full force.

Those that got directly hit were sent to the skies, a trail of blood-red mist following right behind them before the dyna stone bombs implanted in them were set off, showering the battlefield with a soft purplish light that lasted for only a few seconds. I was able to partially dodge the hit because I ducked the moment I saw his right arm go for a backhand position, but at the cost of my left arm as he still hit me there, sending me spiraling in the air before landing on the ground with a sickening thud. As my mind struggles to get ahold of itself, I take a good look at my left arm. It just dangling there, broken and bending in _seven_ different directions!

"AHHHHHHH! FUUUUUCK!" I scream out as I'm on the ground writhing in agony as I try to get up and get away from Kaido.

"And where in the hell do you think you're going huh!?" I hear Kaido's voice call me out specifically, the ground shaking as his thunderous footsteps get ever so closer to me. I turn around and get a good look at this huge bastard. His entire figure is just pulsating with power, and comparing myself to him is like comparing a sparkler to a Tsar Bomba!

And don't get me started with the look on his face, and the fist that is coming towards me at this very moment.

I pissed myself at that very moment. And if I'm quite honest, I'm not afraid to admit that.

Thankfully though, it seems like Stainless and Strawberry come for the rescue as they block the strike together with Haki-infused blades. As this is happening, Helena rushes over and picks me up, sprinting as she takes me to the medics as Kosaku provides cover fire with his rifle.

"Don't worry Aras! He won't hurt you again I swear!" Helena tries to assure me as she takes me to one of the field medics, who looks at me with worry.

"Ok set him down over there. We'll be with him shortly." the medic states as she points towards a large, slanted rock.

Helena curtly nods as she places me there. As she gently puts me down, careful not to move my left arm, she gives me a bright smile and a thumbs up. "We have everything under control. Believe in us Aras!" Helena tells me cheerfully, leaving without giving me a chance to respond.

It only took a minute or so before a medic came to my aid. "You are an incredibly lucky kid, did you know that?" He tells me.

"I don't feel so lucky." I retort, grabbing a piece of wood and putting it in my mouth. "I'm ready," I say, preparing myself for the pain as I try my hardest to ignore the continuous explosions and flashes of purple around me.

I try to stifle my scream as best as I can, thinking of anything else other than what is going on so as to ignore the pain as best as I can. I can hear the sickening and quite horrifying snap and cracks as the medic puts my arm back in its place. After what seems like forever, the medic begins to wrap my arm with splint and bandages before getting a piece of cloth and using it as a makeshift sling. My tear-filled eyes open and see that my arm looks much better than before.

"There you go. That should help for now. Get back out there and bring back any injured marines you find." The medic commands me as he heads back to where the other injured Marines are.

He doesn't make it to the other side as a ripped leg is thrown at his direction with enough momentum to pierce through his body and send him towards one of the battleship hulls, where he hangs motionlessly as the leg keeps him lodged in the seastone covered hull. I turn to look to see Kaido holding a mutilated marine soldier in his hand as both Stainless and Strawberry are knocked into the ground, bloody and unconscious.

But my attention is not on them. No, it's on Helena, who is petrified at the mere sight of Kaido towering over her. They both ignore the surrounding bodies around them, both marine and pirate as Kaido slowly begins to walk towards Helena mockingly, as if to show that she is only alive because he wills it. For every step Kaido takes forward, that's a step Helena takes backward, but due to the sheer difference in size, Kaido is closing the gap rather fast.

No.

Nonononono.

I will not stand here and watch my best friend die on me because I was too scared to do anything.

I sprinted towards her as fast as my legs possibly can, putting as much force as possible. I can feel my muscles cramping from the strain, but I ignore it, too focused on making sure Helena doesn't die.

She won't die! Not on my watch! I refuse to let that happen!

As Kaido raises his fist into the air, I double down and force my legs to run even faster. Ignoring the increased wetness around my calves as well as the sensation of my body ripping itself apart, once I am only an arm's length distance away from Helena, I grab her and throw her behind me with all the strength I can muster with my right arm.

Then, for some reason, everything began to move slowly. I could see Helena looking at me with utter shock as she is floating in the air. From the outer edge of my vision, I could see Kaido's fist turn into an open palm that is headed right at me. ' _So this is it… This is how my life ends… heh…'_ I internally chuckle as I get a good look at my best friend for one last time.

"I'm sor-"

My world blackens in an instant.

* * *

 **With Helena…**

It all happened so quickly! I couldn't even move fast enough! One minute the big man many call Kaido was ready to kill me with a single punch, then in an instant, I am suddenly thrown out of the way, and taking my place is Aras.

I can only look in shock at seeing my friend saving me from dying as he gives me a sad look.

"I'm sor-" he gets cut off as Kaido hit him so hard Aras flew off into the distance, his body split into two pieces, with them flying in two different directions.

"Nooooooo!" I cry out, my sight getting blurry as I see the smaller piece of Ara's flying pieces begin to give off the purple glow of death before exploding. The massive boom pushing Aras away into one of the small islands that has a big forest.

I look back at the horrible bastard that killed my best friend, and I can feel my tears coming out of my eyes as I get the angriest I have ever been.

"Bah! The fool had it coming! He's only delaying the inevitable after all. Now be a good brat and stand still!" He yells out, walking towards me with a closed fist.

Before he can do anything to me, Admiral Zachariah suddenly appears right under Kaido, his fist hitting Kaido straight in the gut. And then I see that Kaido has multiple dents all over his body, each one turning a nasty purple color as he pukes blood all over the admiral. He stands there, uncaring of the blood landing all over him before pulling his fist out of Kaido, jumping into the air as he does so and kicks him on the back of the neck, causing the behemoth known as Kaido to begins to fall over towards the ground.

"Leave!" The Admiral yells, making me look at him with attention, noticing how tired he looks. "He knew you are the strongest out of all of them. Live for his sake!" He looks like he wanted to continue, but then Kaido suddenly stands up and punches Admiral Zachariah with a fist covered in haki.

"Who's next!" an angry Kaido screams out, looking around like a crazy animal.

Knowing I will be next, I run away from him as fast as I can. ' _Aras… why? Why did you leave me?'_ I feel a lump grow in my throat as I try my hardest not to cry. I ignore what's happening around me as I run to the ship, passing by many of the marines only to be stopped by Kosaku.

"What's wrong?" He asks me, his face always having the same dull look.

At that, I start crying. I throw myself at him, hoping that he will tell me that everything will be okay.

Only it won't.

"Aras is dead, and it's all my fault!"

* * *

 **With Arasval…**

Cold… It's so cold…

I could barely taste the iron in my mouth as blood flows out uncontrollably. My ears are ringing, my vision is blurry with one eye dangling from its socket, and then there is the big chunk of my body that is ripped off. My left arm is gone, along with most of the left side of my body, including my heart. The bomb was set off, I'm sure of it, yet my body is still intact.

Why? How?

Well, it's not like it matters anymore. I'm gonna die soon enough from blood loss. I crawl towards a tree, not wanting to die like some wounded animal in a crater. It took a while, after having to deal with trying to get out of a crater while trying ever so desperately to keep my opens when my eyelids feel oh so heavy, but I finally reached the tree and I feel my body start to relax unwillingly.

' _No… not until I get comfortable…'_ I tell myself as I begin to shift my body around until my back is leaning on the side of the tree.

If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die as comfortable as possible.

' _It's been only six years, but in that time I have experienced what many in my world would kill to even see with their very own eyes. I'm fine with this…'_ I think to myself as I finally let my heavy eyelids close.

…

…

…

"Now this… it's supposed to…" I hear a voice in the distance. I open my good eye and can only see a tall figure wearing some kind of robe. I couldn't get a good look as he is rather far away and seems to be talking to himself.

"He… Destiny… No one has…" I hear him say. What the hell does destiny have to do with anything?

"No… It isn't his time… She should've died… He should be…" He continues on. I feel a spark of anger building up as he says that. I can only deduce by his words that he meant Helena should be the one here dying here instead of me.

Is that why he mentioned destiny a couple of seconds ago? Does he believe is something so utterly stupid?

Suddenly his face is right in front of me, forcing my mouth open and shoving something into my mouth.

The taste… Oh God, the taste… It so… so rancid! My tastes aren't even working that well and the flavor is so bad it makes vomit in comparison taste like five-star cuisine! Even so, I couldn't spit it out, considering that the man is forcing my mouth closed and even then I don't even have the strength to spit it out. Once I swallow it, the man lets go of me and looks at me with an unamused expression. "It seems the limit I have put on you before you were born backfired a bit. This should bring you up to speed." He casually states as he gets back up from a crouching position. "After all, I helped make what you ate." he finishes before he vanishes into thin air.

I immediately connect the dots to what he is saying.

Did I just eat an Artificial Devil Fruit!

Ohshitohshitohshitohshit! What does it do!? I hope to God it isn't a horrible ability like the Jacket-Jacket Fruit or something like that! Please let it be something that will-why am I glowing?

My entire left side of my body begins to be covered with a soft goldish-white glow that begins to spread out throughout my entire left side at a rapid pace. My eyes widen as I see the light shape itself into my left arm and the left side of my torso. Then the light disperses into many small glowing orbs that float softly into the sky before disappearing.

I look at my left arm. It looks completely normal. I get up to test it out to see if what I am seeing is not an illusion. I flex my arm, give it a couple thrusts and jabs, do some one-armed push-ups with them, and even punch a boulder.

Then it hits me. I am completely fine! I mean sure, my clothes are completely torn up, especially my shirt, but my body itself doesn't even have a scratch on it! I feel full of energy… I feel amazing! A glowing white feather passes by the corner of my eye, catching my attention. Before it even touches the ground, it turns into light and disperses. I just look with surprise as I notice that I have an extra set of appendages that I never realized I have. I look towards my and can see a massive white feathered wing flexing slowly as the wind passes through it. I look towards my left and can see an adjacent copy of my other wing.

Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, I have wings! And they look absolutely beautiful! They give off such an angelic feel if I'm quite honest.

Wait a minute…

Did it take me this long to just realize it!

I feel around the top area of my head and feel something hard floating atop my head. I slowly feel around it, and from the circular shape, I can only deduce I have a halo.

' _Is this a devil fruit or did I actually die?'_ I ask myself, now genuinely worried. I look around my surroundings and even in the crater to see if my body is in there, but no, it's not there. Okay, so devil fruit it is… I feel like I'm forgetting something here…

"Oh shit! I forgot! Helena!" I yell out to myself as I sprint towards the action, jumping over the crater my body made in the process. I get there faster than expected and could see that one of the Marine Battleships got sunk. I could see Admiral Zachariah and Kaido duking it out against one another, and it looks like the both of them are worse for wear.

Okay, now how to get over there? There is a huge body of water between me and where the others are and I can no longer swim. I can try Geppou, but I can only go so far with it before I my legs begin to falter due to the strain. So that leaves me with my only other option.

Flying.

"Well then, no better time than the present I guess." I say to myself, picturing in my mind how a bird flies. Hmm… from what I can remember, Falcons are supposed to be really fast, so maybe if I try to mimic how they fly it could work for me. I give myself a long runway, and then begin running as fast as I can and begin to flap my wings rapidly. "It's working! I can fly!" I yell out, as I begin to ascend into the sky, my speed ever so increasing continuously as I close the gap and head towards the Marine Battleships.

As I get closer, I begin to notice something odd. It's… strange… When I look at those near the battleships, I can feel their… emotions? No… This something different… with many of them, I can feel something that makes me feel sick and horrible. I look at Kosaku and that feeling is multiplied. Just looking at him makes me feel… disgusted. I turn my attention towards Helena, and that feeling is replaced with a feeling peace and tranquility. She just feels… so… so… pure. That's the only word I can describe the feeling when I look at her.

Okay, that was fucking creepy, moving on! I look towards the last place I saw Bolo and Donnie and see the both of them tied up, and it looks like Buggy is yelling at the both of them while shanks are palming his forehead. ' _Shit, they're captured. Gotta rescue them.'_ I think to myself. A small part wanted me to leave them there, knowing that Roger and his crew won't do anything to harm them, but knowing how we are treated and such, there is probably someone in the marines with us that has the remote to set off the bombs in their hearts, so that way, nobody can reverse engineer the data out of the kids.

Speaking of bombs implanted in hearts, when I regenerated, did the bomb regenerate with me? Gonna ask Helena later, she probably saw the whole thing.

I stop flapping my wings for a bit and dive down towards Buggy and Shanks, who are now bickering against one another.

"They're kids Buggy! We can't just torture information out of them!" Shanks exclaims, pointing his cutlass in Buggy's face.

"But they're with the Marines! They at must know how they were able to get our-bwah!?" I interrupt Buggy with a body charge, knocking him onto the ground, while Shanks looks at me with utter surprise.

"Shit! Bye!"I say as I grab Donnie and Bolo and fly out of there as fast as I can. I can hear Shanks calling out to me to stop, and imma be honest, I was tempted to do so because… well… It is Shanks after all.

"Aras, what happened to you!?" Donnie questions me.

"Why do you have wings and a halo!? " Bolo chimes in.

The both slowly look at each other before suddenly shouting in my face "ARE WE DEAD!?"

I've had enough at this point. "Calm the fuck down! Devil fruit! Explain later!" I grit my teeth as I dodge some of the bullets the Beast Pirates are firing at me once they get a good look at me. Some of the bullets do hit me, and while the pain is nearly unbearable, the wounds close immediately after, pushing out the lodged bullets in the process and then I no longer feel the pain, as if the attack never happened in the first place. "Okay, we're almost there! Just a little more-!" From the corner of my eye, I can see a cannonball heading right towards me. I wouldn't be able to dodge it considering the two people I'm carrying as well as how close the cannonball actually is to me.

"Hang on!" I yell out as I use my wings to shield myself Donnie, and Bolo. The cannonball explodes upon impact, and the subsequential blast knocks the air out of me as I begin to plummet towards the ground.

"Gah! Aras flap your wings! Flap flap flap!" Bolo shrieks at me as we fall out of the sky.

"You try to take a cannonball to the back and keep flying!" I yell back, trying my hardest to slow down the descent.

"We're still going down fast Aras!" Donnie unhelpfully adds in as I flap my wings.

"Oh hell no, I'm not dealing with any more broken bones today!" I yell out as the ground is only roughly twenty feet from us. Then, as if by a miracle from God himself, my body suddenly stops only ten feet from the ground. 'What the?' I question myself as I notice that two more pairs of wings sprout out of my back, and the only reason I can tell aside from the strange feeling of wind passing through them is shadow my body is making. "Where the hell were these when I needed them!?" I shout out, looking at the sky for an answer.

"ARAS!" My attention turns towards Helena, who is looking at me with wide tear-filled eyes while Kira looks at me with surprise. I drop Bolo and Donnie, who yelp a "Hey!" as they hit the floor. I slowly descend towards the ground, giving Helena and Kira the biggest smile I can. "I'm back."

Helena tackles me and begins to sob uncontrollably. All I can do is just take it and rub her back, trying to soothe her as best as I can.

"Your back… Your back..." she whimpers out.

"Yeah… I'm back… I'm sorry for scaring you like that." I tell her, genuinely apologetic.

"No… I mean… your back..." she gets off of me and looks at me with reddened eyes.

"What about my back?" I ask, now genuinely confused.

"It's on fire." she responds.

Wait what?

* * *

 **Well, you guys enjoyed the first chapter!**

 **Make sure to favorite, follow, and review! y'all know I always appreciate the support to all my fellow readers and writers out there. Tell me what you think! If there is anything that confuses you, just shoot me a PM and I'll definitely get to you soon. Thank you for your time and see ya later!**

 _ **Forzarismo,**_

 _ **October 10, 2018**_


	2. Training With The Best From Marineford

_**Hey Guys! Forzarismo here with the second chapter of The Perditionists! Sorry for the more than a year-long break, I have been busy with real-life things that I have genuinely forgotten most of what I was going for in my stories, which is obviously a no-no. so as an apology, here's something that I hope will entertain you all for just a bit.**_

 _ **Enjoy~!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2: Training With The Best From Marineford**_

Our mission was a failure.

We lost a Battleship, our casualties are around fifty, Akainu is in the infirmary after clashing with Gol D. Rogers, same with Strawberry and Stainless after their bout with Kaido, and not to mention both Zachariah and the other Admiral that came with us, who goes by the name Hisoka, are injured and are currently resting in their quarters as they had to hold off the pirates as we got everyone back onto the ship.

At least the others and I didn't get punished, considering who we went against. Rather, we were praised for our capabilities in both support and giving some of the other pirates a bad time.

It feels good to be appreciated.

Anywho, right now Helena, Kira, Donnie, and Bolo are sitting around me, wanting to know about my newfound powers and what they do.

"Now before I start answering any of your questions, When I got hit by Kaido… Helena, what happened?" I ask Helena since she must've gotten a good view of what my body went through.

She looks down with a saddened look etched on her face. "His slap split you into two, with the smaller piece exploding and sending you into one of the islands." she tells me.

I hum in contemplation. If what she says is true, and it most definitely is, then I don't have to worry about a Dyna Stone bomb blowing itself up inside of me. "Okay, that's all I wanted to know so thank you for the info Helena." I finish, "Now if you guys want to ask me questions, now is the time." I add on.

Helena is the first one to raise her hand. "Yes?" I ask.

"How'd you get your powers?" She asks me, her head tilting slightly.

I know for a fact it's going to be unbelievable to all of them if I tell them the truth, so might as well lie about what happened. "Honestly? Devil fruit. One moment I'm in front of you, next I find myself in a crater dying before finding a devil fruit and forcing myself to swallow it." I lie smoothly, not giving any tells to show that I am lying.

"What can you do with your powers?" Donnie is the next one to ask.

"Let's see… might as well test this sooner rather than later." I mutter, grabbing my left index finger and yanking it as hard as I can.

It hurt but compared to what I've been through recently, it's nothing I can't manage. Funny how when you go through worse things, stuff like this doesn't even phase me in comparison.

They look at me with surprised expressions as they see my now-broken finger begin to be enveloped in a soft glow before it snaps back into place as if nothing ever happened to it in the first place. "First off I can heal really quickly," I let a pair of wings pop out from my back, letting out a light gust of wind around me. "I can fly obviously, and really fast too! Not to mention I am apparently immune to fire damage. These are the only abilities I know of so far, but maybe with some training, I can discover more." I state as Helena and Donnie get rather touchy with my wings, incredibly interested in how they feel.

"They're rather… soft." Donnie perplexes, as he gently ruffles my feathers. Helena meanwhile pulls all stops and rubs my wing on her cheek. "It's so warm!" She hums happily, seemingly in bliss as she begins to caress my wing to her body.

Continuing on, Kira asks me a question. "Can you still feel pain?" he asks neutrally.

Ignoring the disgusting feeling I felt when looking at him, I let out a soft chuckle. "Oh definitely. Breaking my finger for the demonstration hurt a lot, but I heal fast enough for me to ignore the pain. More of a sting than anything really." I reply, looking at the left side of my body as I remember the first time my healing ability activated.

Bolo then asked his question, "Why'd you run towards Kaido?"

I just shrugged my shoulders. To be honest, that is one question I don't really have an answer for, since I did what I did at the spur of the moment, not really thinking of what I was doing and more of doing what I was told to do. "Imma be honest with y'all, I have no answer to that."

There's a pregnant silence at that point where they all just stared at me awkwardly when I gave them my response.

Suddenly in a blink of an eye, Helena smacks me upside the head, actually looking genuinely angry now.

It didn't even take me a millisecond to understand why she is angry.

"You dumbhead! What were you thinking!?" She chastises me as I can see a vein in her forehead throbbing and bulging from anger.

"I think we all can agree that I wasn't thinking when I did what I did." I respond, the pain lingering a bit before it dissipates.

Helena looks at me before turning away from me and walking out of the room with a huff.

I let out a sigh, I guess I got my work cut out for me.

* * *

 **Three Weeks later…**

Marineford.

The anime and manga do no justice as to how huge the place really is, not to mention how beautiful the place looks when the sun is beginning to set as well, more so since it sets behind the Marineford Tower.

So many Marines walking by and doing their own thing, being an integral part of this society mostly made of the Marines themselves and their families and or relatives.

While the child soldiers and I are being led to the main building of Marineford, I can see some familiar faces here and it solidifies my theory that the fillers apparently exist in this universe. For one, I see Vice-Admiral Komei talking admirably with some civilians in what appears to be an amicable chat; Not too far from him I then see a much younger version of Pasqua and Gasparde sparring against one another as many other marines watch from a distance, even more evidence to me that some of the non-canonical stuff does, in fact, exist in this universe.

"Attention!" I take my eyes away from them as one of my superiors calls for our attention. "As of today, you all will be staying in Marineford for the remainder of your youth until you turn sixteen. Each and every one of you will be worked to the ground and will become the World Government's personification of Justice! You all will become the tools of righteousness that will always punish those who go against our will and protect those who need protecting!" He exclaims, before leading us into a massive room, where I can see the rest of the child soldiers from Punk Hazard in there.

In front of all of us, on a podium, stands a woman with hair blue just like mine, looking at all of us with a calculative gaze. Behind her is Fleet Admiral Kong, Admiral Zephyr, Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Tsuru, and Vice-Admiral Garp.

' _Sweet Jesus, it's them! I never would have thought I would get to meet them in person!'_ I fangirl internally as I get a good view of Garp in particular. You don't even need haki to sense the amount of raw power flowing through this beast of a man. It's so thick it's almost palpable. Compared to him, Sengoku's power seems to be slightly smaller, though that is probably due to him being in more control while Garp's is barely restrained, that doesn't mean he is no less of a threat compared to Garp, especially considering the feats he has done from what I remember.

Tsuru, on the other hand, I can sense something akin to serenity. While I would be a fool to think she is of a lesser threat compared to the two since even when she is in her sixties Doflamingo would rather try to escape from her than to try to fight head-on.

Going with Zephyr… Man, I am left speechless! Heck the amount of respect this guy is getting is insane! From the looks he's getting from Garp, Sengoku, Tsuru, and even Kong it appears he is highly appreciated here in Marineford.

And speaking of Kong…

Jeez, this guy is intimidating. I have no words to describe how imposing the man looks by just stand there with his arms crossed. No wonder he is the Fleet Admiral even with monsters such as Zephyr, Garp, and Sengoku.

"Hello everyone! I am Rear Admiral Gunilla, and as of today you all will be under my jurisdiction!" I hear the woman shout out, bringing my attention to her. ' _Never seen her before in the series, wonder what happened to her? Anywho I guess she's our leader now… Hope she treats us better than those damn scientists.'_ I think to myself as she looks at us with a neutral gaze before continuing, "From here on out, you will be taught by the best of the best! We will nurture and care for each and every single one of you to bring out the most of your potential, so I want you all to give me a 'yes ma'am!' if I am clear! Am I clear!?" She yells.

"Yes ma'am!" we all chorus out.

"Good! You are all the future of our military! Therefore, by the time we are done, each and every one of you will show those against us our true might!" She proclaims, saluting at us.

"Yes ma'am!" We all yell out as we return the salute.

"Then you are all dismissed. Go to the exit towards your right and you will reach your new rooms. Each room holds ten people and has two bathrooms, so pick whichever one you want. Just a reminder that the moment you choose a room, you and your new roommates will be a squad until further notice." she explains before walking away, leaving all of us to our own machinations.

I immediately call Kosaku's and Helena's attention, since if I'm gonna be in a squad with someone, it might as well be with my best friend and a former serial killer who's in the same boat as I am. "I'm sure you all heard her, so let's cut to the chase and follow me." I say, getting a happy nod from Helena and a shrug from Kosaku. As we walk towards one of the rooms on the farther end of the building, I can see many of the children already getting into their own rooms with people they like or at the very least tolerate, seeing as some of them look at one another with either a neutral look or a small frown. I pay them no mind as I choose a mostly empty room with all the basic necessities we'll need, along with two boys that are already occupying the room.

' _Huh, it looks like we get bunk beds again.'_ I note to myself before taking a good look at the other two occupants. I recognize them almost immediately. "Jaa! Norris! How ya doing guys!" I call out to the two, who were arm wrestling one another before I interrupted them. UMX-03, Codename: Norris, and UMX-06, Codename: Jaa are the two strongest kids out of all of us in terms of pure strength. Their strength is ludicrous for kids their age like it eclipses most of the other child soldiers' strength by a wide margin. Jaa is serious most of the time, though whenever he's with me, he tends to be much more expressive with his emotions. Norris is an all-around animal lover, spending what little break time we got to make friends with the local fauna on Punk Hazard.

Jaa's turns his attention away from Norris and looks at me with a brightened look on his face. "Aras! It's been so long!" Jaa exclaims as he envelops me in a tight hug.

"How was the mission, you guys?" Norris then asks me. I was about to respond until two familiar faces made their way in.

"Hey guys! We saw you three walk over here so we followed." Bolo says as Donnie nods in agreement.

"Well, that's now seven of us here, only three spots being left open. I wonder who else will join us?" Kosaku ponders, tilting his head towards the door.

He didn't have to ponder any further as once again two more kids popped in. ' _UMX-01… or Bruce as I should say. I haven't seen him for months now that I think about it, though he still has that stern look on his face. As to the other… I actually don't know who he is, though he must be quite strong to be side-by-side with Bruce.'_ I think to myself as I take a good look at both of them. Bruce is still with his surprisingly fitting bowl-cut hair though it looks like he has three parallel slash marks across his left cheek that have already healed. The one next to him has a rather prominent nose and a similar haircut as Bruce's but longer and slightly more curled in.

"Oh, hey Bruce. It's been a while, how was it with Vice Admiral Prodi?" Donnie questions, to which the now named Bruce lets out a huff of irritation.

"Damn pompous bastard had us go through a suicide mission against some pirates. Me and Jackie are the only ones from our group that got out of there alive." Bruce replies.

"And I'm the one that got us out of there in time!" Jackie helpfully comments.

Bruce's eyebrow twitches. "You shoved a rolling pin up the guy's butthole, not to mention you are the one who triggered the alarm in the first place!" Bruce chastises Jackie.

Jackie shrinks down. "Sorry." He mutters.

Bruce only sighs. "Eh whatever, can't do nothing to change the past anyway." he says. "It looks like we have nine people here, now we only have one more spot left. From what I see though, I have no complaints as to who is going to be in my squa-"

"It looks like you all need one more to complete this tango~!" A new voice sounds out from the doorway.

"I stand corrected." Bruce laments.

"Ah shit it's him." Bolo grumbles.

I honestly don't get the hate UMX-81 A.K.A Jean-Claude gets from many of the kids. Heck, even Helena's smile seems to strain a little whenever he's around her. I guess they find him too weird? Whatever, I personally find his flamboyant attitude quite enjoying to be around, though it doesn't help that he strikes many poses akin to those from Kira's original universe. Huh, I guess that also explains why Kira isn't perturbed by him either.

Fucking JoJo's man. Posing their way to victory.

"C'mon guys give him a chance." I try to reassure my roommates, who only grumble under their breath. I sigh, turning towards Jean-Claude with a sheepish smile. "Ah, don't let them bother you man, you're okay in my book." I tell him, to which he beams at me with appreciation.

"Okay now that we have a full set of ten people here, I think it would be great to set some rules beforehand wouldn't you all agree?" Kira questions monotonously, to which I and many others nod in agreement. "Good first off: Showers. You can only use the shower for 5 minutes. Since there are ten of us, considering the amount of time it will take us to dry and get out of the showers, we have half an hour total to make sure we are ready for the day." Kosaku lectures.

"Who will keep track?" Jackie asks since the reality of keeping a couple of genetically modified kids in line seems like a bit of a stretch.

"I will." Kosaku replies.

"How?" Jean-Claude wonders.

"I'm always the first to wake up. And I have my ways." Kosaku left it at that and considering his past life, I fully believe him. Thank God he doesn't have his stand, else I think he would easily be one of the most dangerous people on this planet since I don't think even Haki can protect people from turning into a living bomb.

"Anywho, Bathroom is covered, so what about who gets which bed?" I ask, since technically with me and Kira being the adults in this room, we have to be the ones leading them, and since their kids, we'll let them have their fun while it lasts. They don't even answer and instead just look towards the closest unclaimed bed and lay their possessions onto there.

Soon after we kept setting up more ground rules so as to maintain order here in our room, so that way we have more time to do whatever we want.

Looking back at this moment, this needless to say didn't last long…

* * *

 **Much Later…**

Gunilla is looking through the files of the children under her charge for the umpteenth time this week, wondering to herself time and time again as to what the ever living hell where those damn scientists ever thinking!?

"I've said it once and I'll say it again, those scientists are going to be punished harshly for the mistreatment of these children." Garp growls out, taking a look at one of the files himself, a vein on his temple popping out at the thought of children being put through tests like these at such a young age.

Sure he put Dragon through some harsh stuff when he was young, but it was nothing he was sure he couldn't handle and he most definitely didn't start him off at such a young age.

"Kong did you know about what they were doing?" Tsuru whispers out, clutching the file she is holding tightly. "Denser muscles, abnormal regeneration, rapidly adapting to harsh environments..." Her eyes then slightly bulge out of her sockets. "Accelerated Growth!? Is that why some of them look much older than they should be!? What the hell!?" Tsuru cries out, appalled to find out that these children will most likely not survive any more than forty to fifty years, and that's considering if they don't die in the field.

"Neither of us wanted this. The Gorosei were the ones that brought the project to fruition, only telling me of it once they had their first successful prototype to base off the rest." Kong speaks, holding the file of their first successful 'super-soldier', UMX-00.

"That _prototype_ is a human girl, and like each and every one of us, she has a name!" Gunilla snarls out at her superior, she herself now holding a file of a boy with blue hair just like hers.

UMX-02: Arasval.

Her son.

The same son she was forced to abandon in Punk Hazard two months after his birth so those damned scientists can continue running tests to 'make sure' that all of the genetic modifications done to her boy were working as intended. And looking at the chart in his file, while she is proud at the fact the he is considered the smartest among all of the children by a wide margin, that pride is completely overshadowed by the fact that her son also has one of the highest scores in pain tolerance.

She knows for a fact that one isn't just born with a high pain tolerance, which means they must've done some horrible things to him to achieve such a high score.

Tsuru puts a calming hand on Gunilla's shoulder in hopes to calm down.

"Ah yes, if I remember correctly you became part of this experiment as well Gunilla. Considering your son is one of the first ones to be born after the red-headed girl, how do you feel that you had no contact with him for the past seven years?" Kong asks, making Tsuru's efforts be for naught as he got his response by Gunilla getting up and attempting to pull out her blade, only to be stopped by Tsuru punching her in the gut, blowing the air out of Gunilla's lungs and bring her to a complete stop.

"You'd do well to keep her in line Tsuru, if not for how successful and flawless her career here in the Marines has been I would've had her court marshalled for that." Kong states, eyebrow raised at the women's actions.

"If we can get back to the topic at hand, given the statistics so graciously given to us by the scientists, it appears that at this point in time, each and every one of these children have the ability to at the very least go toe-to-toe with some of our ensign officers, which in itself is an amazing feat for a child to do. Not to mention the fact that there are a good amount of noteworthy ones that I can definitely see being at least Commodore or higher." Kong continues, now holding new files of different children.

"In any case, we still haven't received my son and Admiral Hisoka's report as to what happened, and yet there are rumors circulating that two children survived a direct encounter from Kaido himself." Admiral Zephyr said, making Garp and Gunilla look at him in shock.

"There's no way that's true." Gunilla remarks, since they all know the type of person Kaido is, and that he would never let someone who catches his wrath alive unless said person is capable of going toe-to-toe with him, which isn't a lot of people.

Zephyr looks at the Rear-Admiral with a raised brow. "If it weren't true, according to the rumor then your son and the red-haired girl he's always around wouldn't be here in the first place." he shoots back, Gunilla taken aback by what Zephyr just said. "But enough about that, even if these kids are considered to be merely weapons by the World Government, it still doesn't change the fact they think and act like any other kid out there. They have their own likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams." Zephyr continues on.

"Meaning that while these boys and girls may have been artificially created…" Tsuru starts.

"…They still have a soul." Garp finishes.

"So we need to be careful with these children, not just for their sake, but ours as well. The World Government has an image to maintain, and it definitely won't help if many of their strongest appear to be mentally unstable attack dogs." Sengoku interjects, with all of them nodding in agreement.

A knock on the door interrupts them. "Enter." Kong commands.

Brannew comes in with Hisoka and Zachariah just behind him. "Fleet Admiral! Admiral Hisoka and Admiral Zachariah have their reports ready!" Brannew states, with the two Admirals now sitting down and handing their reports to Kong and Sengoku.

"Thank you Brannew. You are dismissed." Sengoku speaks, receiving a salute from Bannew before he turned around and left.

Hisoka raises his legs on the table while theatrically extending his arms. "Well, don't we have a story to share to you all. But before that," Hisoka turns to Zachariah. "Why don't you turn off that time acceleration ability of yours Zachariah? You're with trusted individuals here." Hisoka asks the Admiral beside him.

Zachariah says nothing as his body intensely vibrates as steam whips around him for a couple of seconds before dispersing, showing instead a much smaller fifteen-year-old purple-haired teenager wearing a suit many times his own size. He sighs in relief as he sags into the chair that makes him appear even smaller than he actually is. "You all have no idea how exhausting it can be to keep up appearances and to maintain a professional image." Zachariah tiredly speaks as he cranes his neck around. "Back on the matter at hand, this is basically what happened..."

* * *

 **At The Same Time With Arasval…**

I decided to explore Marineford by myself as soon as the opportunity arose. I've been walking for about forty minutes and the setting is quite honestly breathtaking.

The natural clean smell in the air, the mostly clear sky, the families of the Marines stationed here going along their day amicably with one another, and the occasional Marine Officer chastising a random soldier for any number of things.

It's wonderful.

This peaceful serenity… It's been so long since I've felt such peace…

As I bask in this feeling I feel myself bumping into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't… looking at… where I was going..."

Holy _fuck_ he's tall!

Yellow pinstripe suit. Check!

Wavy hair. Check!

Aviator Sunglasses? Check!

Looks high as fuck. You fucking know it!

"Oh~! It's no problem little boy~." The man I know who would become Admiral Kizaru in the future waves off as he looks at me keenly, tilting his head slightly as if contemplating something. "Hmm~… You're one of the Kids from that project right?"

How the hell did he- oh yeah, forgot I'm wearing a tank top, not even covering the tattoo marked on my neck. Well, it's not like it's some secret project anymore considering how successful it has been with producing results and then some.

"Yeah that's me." I reply sheepishly, not knowing how to continue this conversation as my uncertainty gets the better of me.

"I had a couple of them transferred to my care before dropping them off not too long ago. They sure are going to be quite the monsters when they get older. Especially the tan one with the red eyes." Borsalino mentions.

I perk up when he mentions Jaa. "Why is that?" I ask curiously, wondering what Jaa did to impress Borsalino of all people.

"Ah ah ah, that would be telling young boy~." Borsalino says, yanking my chain so to speak as he waves a finger in my face. I'm getting really irritated with how I keep getting treated like a small brat! As much as I want to retaliate, I keep my cool. If I am to survive this world, then I'm going to have to keep my cool even in the direst of situations.

Yes, be cool like a cucumber-

"Hello~? Anybody home in this noggin?" Borsalino knocks, straight up _knocks_ , on my forehead as I am thinking!

You know what fuck it!

I drive my leg upwards as to kick him on the shin in retaliation to his humiliating action. Obviously since I didn't think things through and forget for that moment that he ate the Glint-Glint Fruit and my kick merely phases through him.

Though for a moment it felt like I hit something. It felt kinda like my leg went through thick mist instead of light.

Weird.

As I'm about to fall and faceplant myself onto the ground, I feel Borsalino's hand grabbing the back of my tank-top and lifting me up, causing me to let out a small gasp of surprise.

"Oh~ That is some kick you hit me with. Pray tell me what was that?" He asks me as I can see his shades glint mysteriously.

Ok now I'm confused. "What was what?" I ask with genuine confusion evident in the tone of my voice.

"C'mon don't act so clueless, you know what I'm talking about. You ate a devil fruit haven't you?" He inquires, clearing things up.

"Oh, uh yeah I ate one not too long ago, How'd you know?." I respond, curious as to the hidden glint in his glasses. He begins to walk towards the main Marineford building, still holding on to me as if I were a bag. "W-Wait! Where are we going!?" I question, not liking the silent treatment and how his glasses seem to have this ominous glint that is filling me with dread.

* * *

 **Later…**

"I seriously think this is a terrible idea!" I scream, scared for my life as as Borsalino is only thirty meters away from me, his hands in his pockets. Some marines here and there have gathered around to see what this Vice-Admiral is going to put me through, their curiosity piqued since I am a relative unknown in this Island who has gotten the attention of one of their most promising members.

"Now now let's not get too uppity little boy~. I mean after all, the only thing you have to do…" Borsalino stops speaking for a moment as his right arm lifts up, his index finger pointing at me as it let out a terrifying glow. "…is dodge."

"Oh fu-!" That's as far as I get as the beam hits me dead center on my forehead. The impact knocks me off my feet, but after I get over the fact that I was shot by Borsalino, I realised something.

It's didn't hurt.

I mean sure I felt the impact of the shot, but it didn't even sting. Just tingled a bit before the feeling went away. "The hell…?" I mutter to myself, still lying on the floor, utterly aghast that I am still alive since a shot like that can kill from what I remember in the series.

"Now isn't that a surprise…" Suddenly a shadow looms over me, Borsalino peering down at me, the same high look never leaving his face, but I can see a hint of surprise in his eyes as he looks me over. "Normally one of those shots is enough to kill the average pirate."

 _What._

"So I could've died?" I question utterly dumbfounded at the fact that this man just straight up shot me with what is essentially a laser beam on steroids. "What would've happened if I did die!?" I shout, finally understanding the gravity of the situation at hand.

He just shrugs nonchalantly at my incredulity. _Shrugs_ at the fact that he could've killed me with just a finger but- "You're still alive, aren't you? I don't get what's the big idea? We just discovered something about your new power, aren't you be excited about that?" He interrupts my train of thought, his eyes slightly narrow as he picks me back up and sets me down on my feet. "Now, again." Borsalino responds curtly as he walks back to his original position.

Well, I did want to get strong to survive in this world, maybe this is what I need to bring me up to speed. I mean getting the attention from a Vice Admiral that I know will eventually be world renown to train me is definitely some amazing luck. Sure it might be hell, but if the results become noticeable fast, then I'm sure I can handle it.

And sure enough as soon as I finish that thought, I feel something ding me on my felt temple, making me stumble back to the ground. I let out a groan as I get back up again.

"You were too distracted. Again."

Just gotta get through this. Hopefully it won't take a huge toll from my sanity.

Oh who am I kidding. This is One Piece after all.

* * *

 **And that is a wrap for now my fellow readers!**

 **I hope you all have enjoyed that and make sure to favorite, follow, and review~!**

 _ **Forzarismo,**_

 _ **November 7, 2019**_


	3. Shiki The Golden Lion

_**Hey guys! I am back with another chapter of The Perditionists! Thank you all so much for reading my fanfics and I hope you all will continue to enjoy them as much as I like to write them! I am slowly but surely getting back into writing and I will try my best to write each chapter for this story and my other one as fast as I can!**_

 _ **Anyhow, let's get started here!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own the sea cash cow that is One Piece!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3: Shiki The Golden Lion**_

Ugh…

I hate my life…

Training with Borsalino is killer! He won't even give me a break until I do something to impress him.

For the past week, all he's been teaching me is how to dodge his beams on an ice platform that he had Vice-Admiral Kuzan make so that in the case that I do dodge, the beam doesn't hit anything noteworthy.

So far there has been some improvement, considering that I can now dodge a couple of his beams instead of none of them.

I guess that's why he had Kuzan build that massive ice platform. Cleaning up the rubble of Sakazuki's favorite restaurant was not a fun way to end my day.

"Now now there's no time for daydreaming you hear?" Borsalino casually admonishes me as I immediately launch myself to the left as to dodge his axe kick which immediately caves in the surrounding ice as I begin weaving between the ice boulders that have accumulated over time from our training.

One of the good things that have come from this training, aside from jump-starting my Observation Haki, is the glory that is beam spamming.

Pointing all of my fingers at his general direction, I just let it rip. Watching streams of light flying out of each individual finger directly towards where I last saw Borsalino is incredibly surreal, but I can't let myself get distracted too much.

Scanning my surroundings, I see some slight movement from the smoke and immediately begin to move. Just as I thought, the ice that I was on moment's ago implodes on itself as Borsalino axe kicks it before he turns towards where I am at now and throws a right hook towards my face. I immediately duck under it counter with a roundhouse kick of my own towards his ribcage.

If there's one positive thing that I can say about training with Borsalino, it would be that the results definitely show after a short while.

My positive thinking is cut short when Borsalino sidekicks me straight in the gut, sending me flying a good couple dozen of meters, knocking the air out of me.

"Here's another lesson for you: Don't get cocky. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who have died because they got too confident in their own abilities while underestimating their opponent." Borsalino advises me as I begin to get up, trying my hardest to ignore the burning pain in my lungs as they desperately try to get air back into them.

Oh trust me teach, I've seen enough anime in general to know not to EVER underestimate ANYBODY. And while I might not have an end goal at the moment, I do want to see this wonderful world that the great man Oda has created in its entirety.

But nevertheless, I must continue training and keep getting stronger. With beings such as Kaido, Big Mom, and Blackbeard out there, I can't take any chances, especially since I am affiliated with the Marines.

Looking at Borsalino, who finally seems to be giving me a breather, he has his hands in his pockets, totally relaxed and simply standing there waiting for me to attack him.

Alright then, I'll happily oblige him!

* * *

 **Many Months Later…**

"How long have they been at it?" Tsuru asks Garp as the both of them see from far away on their observation platform Vice-Admiral Borsalino in the sky accurately shooting hundreds upon hundreds of light beams at Arasval who is actually deflecting all of them successfully with the use of some light chains he has conjured in each hand.

"This is their second day. I am genuinely amazed by the sheer intensity that they have kept it at. It actually gives me some ideas of my own actually." Garp comments as he sees Borsalino make a sword out of light and Arasval doing something similar from what he can see as he makes two instead of one and one of them looks like it's made of pure white flames instead of light.

' _That devil fruit is one of the most impressive I have seen yet.'_ Garp thinks to himself as he recalls the amount of abilities that the young blue-haired boy has shown so far and he has an inkling that there is more yet.

The explosive growth that the both of them have seen these past couple of months with these kids is admittedly rather worrying to them. In general the

ones that have survived long enough to come here on Marineford are getting stronger significantly that in a couple of years, they will be a prominent strike force against all these new pirates.

The exceptional outliers however…

You have your powerhouses like Jaa and Norris who have sheer unrelenting force and more than make up for their inexperience when fighting veteran fighters with their absurd strength.

Then there are the more methodical fighters like Donnie and Kosaku who use their skills and intelligence to their utmost maximum effectiveness, preferring efficiency over everything.

Of course there are also ones who work together to overcome any obstacle such as Jean-Claude, Bolo, and Jackie. They seem to be a balance between the powerhouses and the strategists-in-the-making by being more generalists which is honestly a good thing in Garp's opinion.

Heh. Jackie's creative use of a painter's ladder to steal the win from a Marine Ensign was definitely a sight to behold.

And even among them the three that stand out the most are Helena, Bruce, and Arasval.

Arasval stands out among them for being the only one he can categorize in the group of being their only speedster who can take damage and dish it out in return. That pain tolerance of his plus the regeneration abilities his devil fruit gives him makes for an unrelentless fighter who more than likely will give the first hit in many confrontations.

Bruce is an incredibly fast kinesthetic learner, who has already learned how to use Shigan and Rankyaku with skill usually only seen with Cipher Pol agents. In terms of skill alone he's probably the one above all in terms of his peers. Then there's his haki, both forms which are incredibly strong for one who only has recently unlocked it.

Helena in his opinion has the potential of being one of the strongest generalists he has seen to date. While she might not be as skillful as Bruce, as fast as Arasval, as physically powerful as Jaa, or even as intelligent as Kosaku, she is near there, making her overall the strongest among them.

Her versatility and natural charisma she's beginning to exude only further cements that she is the right one to have in charge when they all grow up.

There's no doubt in his mind that when they all are fully grown, they will be annihilating the wannabe Kaidos and Big Moms before they even break out as upstart pirates!

Speaking of pirates…

"What has Kong said about my suggestion?" Garp asks Tsuru, who only chuckles in response.

"He thinks it's a great idea. Having the Pirate King's execution take place in the weakest sea, not to mention his birthplace, would be quite a message to all pirates out there." Tsuru replies as she then looks over towards one of the training plazas nearby to see Zephyr giving one-on-ones with the much stronger child soldiers, more notably Helena and Bruce, with the both of them learning both forms of Haki much faster than the others who have been able to unlock it.

"Good. With promising upstarts such as these coming to replace us in the future, I have no doubt that this place will be in good hands." Garp comments as he tilts his head slightly to the right to avoid a shard of ice debris heading his way. "If there's one thing that the both of them need to learn to control, it's collateral damage." Garp grumbles out as he has half a mind to head over there and beat the both of them senseless.

Tsuru herself chuckles at that, vividly remembering all those times Garp got in trouble for the usage of excessive force. "As if you were any better at their age." Tsuru remarks before taking her leave, leaving Garp sputtering in an attempt to defend himself before both of them pause and look towards the Horizon.

"You felt that?" Garp asks as his stare narrows towards the horizon.

"I'd be a fool not to." Tsuru says, noting the build up of rain clouds at horizon coming towards Marineford, thunder rumbling as if preluding something that they will not like. She then turns her attention to Marineford Tower, where she catches a glimpse of Kong and Sengoku looking in the same direction as they are.

Something's coming, and they both get the feeling it's not going to be pretty.

* * *

 **Later On…**

Sighing with content to myself after finally having some peace and quiet after a long day of training I head to the showers for the beginning of some good ol' relaxation!

Many of the others have been doing their own training as well, like Bruce and Helena sparring against Rear Admiral Gunilla or Kira spending much of his time in the archives, using his intelligence to learn as much as he can of this world to aid us in the future.

With Norris and Jaa in particular, these past couple of months have done quite a number on the both of them physically.

They are fucking jacked! I always find it hilarious when they fight against Rear Admirals and Commodores and actually end up going toe-to-toe with some of them.

While on the subject of body changes…

I have grown, and I don't mean just me either. Just about every kid that is a part of it has grown and matured considerably and everybody knows that that isn't normal.

Even though I'm just hitting seven years of age, I'm hitting five feet tall dead on, which is much taller than my previous life at the same age. Not to mention that physically I don't even look my age any more, more like I'm in my preteens.

Kira's is three inches taller than me so he's at five feet three inches and he's not even the biggest out of all of us. Like me he's in the same boat of looking older than he actually is and like before that doesn't compare to the one who has changed the most.

No, that title belongs to Norris himself standing at a staggering height (In comparison to a normal human his age) of five feet ten inches! And he looks like a teenager as well!

Seriously, what in the hell did they do to us when we were in the womb?

I mean I know that we were engineered to be the future of the Marines, but really? Does our body forcibly age itself to keep up with the training we put ourselves through?

My musings are cut short when there's an abrupt explosion outside as well as hard shake goes throughout the showerstall I am in.

"Intruder Alert!" A voice in the comms yells as the sirens begin to blare. This is soon followed by multiple explosions out in the distance towards the plaza in Marineford Bay.

Immediately cutting off the water as soon as the shampoo is out of my hair, I instantly dry myself with my powers before I put on my clothes in a jiffy and begin bolting outside, ignoring the sudden weather change as the surrounding rain evaporates before even touching me.

"The intruders are by the plaza in Marineford Bay!" The comms continue to say, making me look towards said bay.

And as I look out towards the horizon it doesn't even take me a moment to realize what is happening.

The pile of men stacked high.

The collective gasps of everyone around as the murmurs intensify all around me.

The presence of the man who is out for blood.

A man I and many others who are deep in One Piece lore would know too well.

 _Shiki: The Golden Lion._

This is a man who, in his prime, is apparently an equal to Whitebeard and second only to Roger himself. One who I personally feel was heavily nerfed in the Strong World film. And now that I have the chance to see him in person…

Kaido ain't got shit on him.

Judging from his presence alone I can see why it would take the combined effort of Garp 'The Fist' and Sengoku 'The Buddha' to take him down, and if I remember correctly even Garp was severely injured in the battle.

Ignoring the blaring sirens, all of the Marine grunts try to take down Shiki only for them to lose their lives moment's later and end up being stacked on to the pile, making it even bigger than before.

"No way! It's…!" One marine calls out in fear as he looks on at one of the most dangerous pirate captains to not only come out in this era, but in the New World in general. "It's one! The enemy is the Golden Lion Shiki, and he's alone!" he calls out as every able-bodied marine is looking on with trepidation.

His blood covered blades don't help matters either. He practically screams danger in my mind.

But… Try as I might, I just can't help but get ever so closer.

"There's no way that Roger could've been caught by trash like you! I respected that man's strength!" Shiki roars out, his cigar not at all falling out of his mouth when fighting nor even being put out by the intense rain.

Sengoku soon begins to walk towards Shiki, as calm as he can be from what I can see. "Roger is the Pirate King. In his battle with you, he left victorious." Sengoku calmly states, looking up at Shiki with a calm glare.

Shiki, on the other hand, is not so calm. "The Pirate King!? So What!? If he'd have just lent me a hand, we could've ruled the world together!" Shiki roars out before calming himself slightly. "We might have been enemies, but we were part of the same era! If he's here then let me see him! If he's gonna die, then I will be the man who kills him!" Shiki exclaims as he looks on at Sengoku with reinvigorated intensity.

Unperturbed, Sengoku continues to talk to Shiki calmly. "The execution will take place in one week, in his hometown, the 'Town of Beginnings' in East Blue, Loguetown."

' _Wait what!? Roger's gonna get killed that fast!? Man that sucks. Granted I've seen him in person only once in my life and I nearly died then, but there's so much I want to ask him and now I'll never have the chance.'_ I think to myself as I get ever so closer to the commotion to get a good look of what I will know to be a battle for the ages.

This has Shiki confused slightly, so Garp walks forward and continues for his friend. "Roger's death should break the spirit of even the most formidable pirates." Garp explains, leaving Shiki completely dumbfounded for just a moment.

"The legend of the Pirate King, Gold Roger, will end in East Blue, the weakest sea!?" Shiki questions angrily. "Don't make me laugh! That'll be your last insult to that shithead, won't it!?" Having enough, Shiki jumps towards the sky floating above everyone, having the high ground so to speak.

"It's weakness makes it the perfect place… East Blue is a symbol of peace!" Garp proclaims as he epically removes his justice coat.

"We will not let you interfere with the execution!" Sengoku affirms, doing the same as Garp.

Finally having enough from the both of them, Shiki divebombs himself towards the veteran duo, With Garp immediately sprinting towards him with his fist cocked back at the ready.

Sengoku immediately goes full on Buddha and claps his hands together, creating a splitting shockwave that Shiki dodges before continuing his assault towards Garp, his haki infused blade meeting his fist.

The haki infused shockwave blasts those closest to the two legends far into the air, flying at speeds that would kill the average person on earth. The pile of dead marines behind Shiki immediately fly into the sky as well, and judging by the marines who are still near enough to notice, I can see the anger and sadness in their eyes at the sight of their fellow comrades just being treated like some random fodder that no one cares about.

…I know I shouldn't, but I do need to make sure that I'm in good standing with the people here on Marineford.

And keeping the dead bodies from getting thrown into the ocean will net me some positive points and will hopefully win me some favors.

So against my better judgement, I fly around the legends fighting and make my way towards the dead bodies that are still in the air. Making a net out of my light chains was something I have never done before, but it's the only way I can see myself getting all of them.

Man, I should've been more creative with my training with Borsalino.

Winging it, I clap my hands together, imprinting my thoughts of how I want the net to look like before slowly opening my hands to see if it came out like I want it to.

It did.

Arcing my hands out, The net expands massively as I begin to fly all around, grabbing as many as I can while trying to avoid the debris of concrete and steel being unintentionally thrown around by Shiki, Garp, and Sengoku.

Keyword on try.

Try as I might, I still get pelted by concrete rock and metal shards impaling me all over. As much of a pain it is to get hurt in such a way, due to my pain tolerance training and my devil fruit's immense healing capabilities, I pretty much ignore the pain and continue on to grab the last body before descending far away from the battlefield.

Heading downwards towards the outer edge of the Oris Plaza, I see many marines creating space for me to drop the net I made as gently as I can. Once I do so, many of them begin grabbing each individual marine with such tenderness and care that it actually surprises me that they are doing such necessities even with Sengoku and Garp fighting Shiki not too far from here.

Heading back to the fight, I float slightly above many of the Marines, just looking on at the fight with such awe at seeing such a fight without really worrying about another person trying to attack me.

Unfortunately around three hours into the fight, Shiki switches it up a bit by levitating all the swords that the deceased marines dropped and begins launching the now haki-infused blades towards the two legendary marines.

While they may have been able to dodge and deflect some of the blades, they didn't come out of it unscathed judging by the deep gashes and cuts they now have on their person.

Unfortunately I didn't notice a blade coming towards me as I was paying too much attention to the marines below me who got hit with some of the deflected blades.

I feel a sharp pain hit me on my left side, the momentum pushing the blade straight between my ribcage and shooting towards the sky with the force the blade had surging in it.

Trying to stay up in the air while trying to remove the broken blade impaling my side took considerably more effort than I thought.

It certainly doesn't help when while trying to remove the blade, I notice that Shiki _locks_ his eyes onto mine.

I have his attention now.

Shit.

Man what I would do to read his mind right now.

* * *

 **Meanwhile In The Fight…**

' _That damnable brat…'_ Shiki thinks to himself as he's forced to look away from the blue haired boy floating above them so that he can dodge another one of Sengoku's shockwaves.

The boy isn't even attacking him and yet he's irritated by his mere presence.

Might have to do with the fact that he ruined the pile he was purposefully building out of dead marines!

Well… Technically he and Garp kinda did that themselves, but he was the one that took them away from here, so he's still justified!

Dodging another one of Sengoku's shockwaves, he decides to fly around the golden buddha man and directly towards his back, barely dodging Garp's signature fist from planting itself into his spine.

It only took a second, but his blades Oto and Kogarashi have met their mark, being shoved between Sengoku's shoulder blades.

Despite the pain he's in, Sengoku moves at a speed that betrays his size and smacks him towards the ocean.

Shiki somehow gains control of himself and guides himself to hit a marine battleship, breaking through the side and into the room where the Cannons are located.

"Hahahaha! Perfect!" Shiki roars out as he touches the battleship and it begins to fly upwards towards the sky.

As many of the Marines look on in horror, Sengoku and Garp stand their ground with hardened looks of determination.

"It's over Marines! I have the high ground!" Shiki calls out as he floats over them with the battleship floating beside him..

"You underestimate our power!" Garp responds in kind as he shoots into the air with his fist cocked back.

"We'll see about that!" Shiki exclaims as he launches the floating battleship over them and towards Marineford Town. This action catches both Garp and Sengoku off guard as they certainly did not expect him to do such a move.

Fortunately, Kong decided to intervene and redirected the battleship towards a much less populated area. "Get your head in the game you two! Focus on the task at hand!" Kong reminds the two, who keep their eyes on Shiki, though now there is gleam in their eyes that wasn't present before.

"You impudent fools… I won't ask again…" Shiki mutters out as the debris of the battleship floats again, shocking many of the people close to the crash. "BRING ME ROGER!" Shiki explodes in an apoplectic fury as the broken pieces of the battleship rises once again at a speed that they were most definitely not expecting.

Suddenly, Shiki feels someone grabbing onto him from behind, catching him completely off-guard. "What the-!?" He looks under his right arm and sees blue hair. "YOU DAMN PUNK! LET ME GO!" Shiki yells out as he begins to thrash around in the sky, trying as he might to get the blue haired annoyance off of him.

But he did not let up, further worsening Shiki's already foul mood.

"I said…" He speaks slowly as he flips Oto and Kogarashi in a backwards stabbing position. "LET GO!" Shiki screams, stabbing the young boy in each of his sides.

With a pained grunt, Arasval does indeed loosen the grip in his hands, making Shiki believe that that did the trick and his hands begin to move again, fully intending from removing his precious blades.

Due to the position they find themselves in, Shiki obviously couldn't see the growing smile on Arasval's face.

Golden chains of light burst out of his palms and wrap Shiki and consequently Arasval himself tightly, making Shiki immobile much to his hidden horror.

"You moron! What are you doing!? Do you truly intend to die a martyr!?" Shiki yelps as he begins to thrash around in the sky, trying his utmost hardest to get these tight chains off of him.

' _Now! Whatever you have to do, do it now!'_ Arasvals screams mentally, hoping that Garp and Sengoku will immediately act upon this opportunity. He can see that Garp and Sengoku are looking with genuine surprise plastered on their respective faces, as if they are halted by something.

"Kid! Do you understand what you are trying to do!? Even if you take me down, It will mean nothing if your very leaders purposefully kill a child in doing so!" Shiki tries to reason with Arasval, to no avail. Seeing that he's not getting through the blue haired kid, he begins to thrash even harder, his wriggling wrists making his dual meito blades dig deeper into Arasval's body.

As Arasval can feel his hold on Shiki actually breaking fast, he knows that it is now or never. ' _If you won't come to me, then I will come to you!'_ Arasval thinks, unleashing his three sets of wings, taking full control of both his and Shiki's control in the sky. Aiming downwards to Sengoku, Arasval begins to divebomb towards the Golden Buddha who immediately begins to create a glowing, golden bubble between his palms not unlike Kuma's Ursus Shock.

Shiki could only look on in horror as he is taken for a ride that he has no control of, something that has not happened to him in decades since his time with Rocks D. Xebec. ' _No… Nonononononono! I will not see my end be the result of some petulant child!'_ Shiki mentally screams in horror as he continues to wriggle his way out of Arasval's grasp. In the corner of his eyes, he sees something that might turn to his favor.

One of the golden chain links is cracking.

' _YES!'_ Shiki thinks joyfully at the sight of what might be the turnabout he needs! Al he needs to do now is use as much force as he can in one fell swoop and he will be-

A haki-infused uppercut to the chin cuts off Shiki's line of thought as the sudden change of velocity causes Arasval to undo his chains as the both of them are sent flying upwards from the terrifying force that is Garp's fist.

Due to not being the one directly hit, Arasval is able to get himself together and stabilize his flight in the air rather quickly, taking into consideration that he has two meito blades stabbed through him.

Shiki on the other hand…

After a double hammerfist to the solar plexus, Shiki is sent careening towards Marineford Bay, where the moment he hits the ground he is continually pummeled by Garp.

Each resound fist is like a cannon, the explosive booms going off continually as flesh meets flesh, and a disorientated Shiki not being able to do a single thing about each of Garp's fist coming down heavier than the previous one.

And to add insult to injury, Garp leaps off of Shiki, giving the near unconscious man a small reprieve. As his swollen eyes open up slowly, he sees the hazy figure of Sengoku coming ever so closer. Even as he tries to crawl away, the glowing imposing man comes closer with a small glowing orb in his hands.

"Try as you might, you have failed here Shiki. This is the reality of things." Sengoku explains as the glowing orb leaves his hands and slowly floats towards Shiki. "This is Truth. This is Justice." The orb is only inches away from Shiki's chest.

"This is the end of the Pirate Era."

And at that, all Shiki can see is light.

* * *

 **Later…**

Ugh… I am so tired…

After Shiki's defeat, He is escorted by Zachariah and Tsuru to be sent to the deepest levels of Impel Down, to never be heard from again.

Of course I know for a fact that will certainly not be the case…

Well… It wouldn't be the case if I still didn't have both of his swords. If I remember correctly, they are meito blades so they are of exceptional quality. I mean, they have to be if Shiki is dual wielding these admittedly magnificent blades.

Making a makeshift sash out of rope to hold the blades I help with cleaning up and help move the debris left over from the battle.

Though try as I might, I wasn't able to get much done since basically all of the Marines watching saw what I did to ensure a victory over Shiki and I was basically herald a hero along with Garp and Sengoku.

"Thank you for your service, young one. If it weren't for your act of bravery, it would have taken much longer to have taken down Shiki." Garp says as he gives me a bright trademark D grin.

"If there is anything we can do for you, just say the word. You have done what many Marines can't claim to have done before so you more than deserve a reward, so long as it is within our power though so keep that in mind." Sengoku states before adding that last part probably so that I can ask for something that is grounded to reality.

"Well… Can I keep these swords? I really like them." I ask, only getting a chuckle from Garp and a smile from Sengoku.

"We were already planning on letting you have those. Consider it a free prize for doing what you did. Now onto your reward." Garp replies, making me sigh in relief on not having to turn over these blades to the Marines.

"Well… If there's one thing-"

"Admiral Sengoku! Urgent message from Agent Spandine!" And there goes my reward. I have the intense urge to test my new swords on this fool who has gall of stalling my reward from me.

Sengoku sighs before looking at me sympathetically. "Perhaps another time then. We will look at your future with great interest!" Sengoku says before leaving with the marine who just came and stole my moment!

Whatever, I have friends who want to speak to me anyway!

Just as I was about to leave though I paused. ' _Spandine… If I remember correctly he is the father of Spandam and he was the director of CP9 before handing the position to his son.'_ I think to myself as I begin to connect the dots. ' _And if I remember correctly Spandine was there when Ohara got hit with the Buster Call twenty years before canon started. And Roger also gets killed twenty years before canon begins as well…!'_

I am hit with intense realization.

Ah shit…

I need to find Saul. NOW!

Heading into the underground docks of Marineford, I desperately search for any massive cowboy hat wearing giants and to my fortune, I do. While I have seen Saul ma few times while here, they were merely passing glances as I was too busy training with Borsalino to even put any attention to him.

Come to think of it, aside from Borsalino and my group, I almost never interact with any other of the marines so that's something I need to fi-

I pause, as I finally find the giant of a man I was looking for.

Before I can head to him however, Garp picks me up from the back of my shirt and looks at me with curiosity. "Brat, why did you suddenly run? Weren't you going to say your request?" Garp inquires as he looks at me in the eyes intently.

"I need more hands on experience. I feel like I would get more of that if I am sent out on more missions with different people." I explain, not outright lying in my opinion since I do truly believe that.

"Hmm… Is that why you want to head to Saul's ship?" He asks, to which I nod. Garp seems deep in thought before looking at me again. "Is this what you truly want?" he questions me, and I get the feeling he's looking for the real reason I want to go.

Well I can't just tell him I want to stop a Buster Call from attacking Ohara and leaving Robin without her family. Not only does that sound insane, but Garp would most definitely begin questioning me further and I know for a fact that I will not like that one bit.

"Yes." I answer, determined to change at least something from that event so that the outcome would be better than canon.

Suddenly the serious air around us is broken when Garp suddenly grins at me. "Okay! Let's go talk to Saul." He says as he walks towards the ship with me still being carried by him.

"Hey Saul!" Garp calls out, getting his fellow Vice-Admiral's attention.

"Huh? Oh hey Garp? How are you feeling after that battle with Shiki? Must've been quite the tough one." Saul responds in kind, looking down at us with a big smile.

"Would've been more difficult had this youngster right here not given us the opening we needed." Garp states with a laugh as he finally puts me down.

"Oh? I heard about that. Couldn't really see the fight myself as I was too busy making sure the civilians were all down here safe and sound. So I take it you are the Arasval that everyone is talking about?" Saul asks as he brings his hand down in an open gesture.

Grabbing the hand to shake it, I nod. "Yes, I am Arasval. It's a pleasure to meet you Vice-Admiral!" I respond, giving a smile of my own.

"Hehe I can tell I will already like you kid! So I'm guessing there's something you want from me since I doubt that this is just a simple meet you want us to do right Garp?" Saul asks goodnaturedly as Garp merely laughs.

' _He sure does like to laugh a lot.'_ I note to myself.

"Sharp as always Saul. This kid wants to gain some more hands on experience and was wondering if he can join your crew for a while." Garp says as Saul looks at me with an inquiring look.

"I don't see why not. We can always use an extra hand and judging by what you said and the swords strapped to his waist I think we can do better with him alongside us." Saul states.

"I promise to live up to your expectations sir!" I state happily with a salute.

"Very well, My ship are going over to the West Blue for a patrol. I think this will be quite the learning experience for you don't you think?" Saul says as I rapidly nod my head in excitement. "Well then, Welcome aboard!" Saul says as he picks me up and places me on the deck.

' _I can't believe this is all happening so fast. First Shiki and now the potential disaster that is the Buster Call on Ohara.'_ I think to myself as I look around the ship in wonder.

' _I hope everything goes well.'_

* * *

 ** _Man shit is changing already! Ohara is coming up soon and I hope you all will anticipate what I got in store for you all!_**

 ** _Thank you all so much for reading my story and make sure to favorite, follow, and review! It's always a pleasure to hear what you all give me your thoughts so until then, I will be seeing you in the next one!_**

 ** _Sincerely,_**

 ** _Forzarismo_**

 ** _May 26, 2020_**


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